12Z Immortalized Human Endometrial Epithelial Cell Line

Endometriosis is a chronic condition prevalent in reproductive age women, defined as the growth of endometrial tissue outside the uterine cavity, most commonly on the pelvic peritoneum. Ectopic endometrial lesions exist within a unique microenvironment created by the interaction of epithelial, stromal, endothelial, glandular, and immune cell components, dominated by inflammatory, angiogenic, and endocrine signals. Current research focuses on understanding the complex microenvironment of the lesions and its relationship with different endometriosis stages, phenotypes, and symptoms, and on developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to minimalize the undesirable side effects of current medical management. Recreating pathophysiological cellular and molecular mechanisms and identifying clinically relevant indicators to assess drug efficacy is a great challenge for the experimental disease models.

Several endometriotic cell lines were developed by researchers from Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. One of these is the 12Z cell line, derived from the endometrial peritoneum of a 37-year-old female who underwent laparoscopic surgery. The 12Z cell line was immortalized using SV40 plasmid transfection. This cell line expresses both pan-cytokeratin and N-Cadherin.

The 12Z immortalized human endometrial epithelial cell line is an established model for endometriosis as it is derived from endometriotic tissue that is positive for N-Cadherin, a marker for invasiveness. This makes the 12Z cell line a suitable model for studying disease progression or therapeutic development. The 12Z cell line is frequently used in 2D or 3D invasion assays, as well as in biochemical assays to study the pathophysiology of endometriosis.